Many of the Hill Country tea estates now offer public tours of fields and factories, with feature tasting areas, restaurants, gift shops and boutique hotel accommodations.

Writes the Herald’s Pat Lee: “You don’t have to be in the country long to appreciate its intimate relationship with tea, from the ubiquity of it in airport shops, the offer of it at every respite or meal, or the waves of tea bushes covering acre after acre of land.”

Orange pekoe is a favourite, especially in the morning, and is one of the most popular, being exported to many countries around the world.